


Zenikian Gatemagick History

by Proxima (Rigil_Kentauris)



Series: Zenikian Worldbuilding [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes
Genre: Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Self-Indulgent Worldbuilding, Worldbuilding, gatemagick worldbuilding, science fiction-fantasy combo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22138033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rigil_Kentauris/pseuds/Proxima
Summary: for someone who quit feh i sure do write a lot about fehjust kidding i wrote this ages agoi will be honest im gonna typo check this later ive run out of focusimported from tumblr (x)EDIT: i wrote this way before they named the world of orgin and yes that kind of throwaway paralouge detail is the kind of thing thats going to keep me up at night *sobs*
Series: Zenikian Worldbuilding [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1457575
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. The Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> for someone who quit feh i sure do write a lot about feh  
> just kidding i wrote this ages ago
> 
> i will be honest im gonna typo check this later ive run out of focus
> 
> imported from tumblr ([x](https://summoner-kentauris.tumblr.com/post/183198248016/zenik-gatemagick-history))
> 
> EDIT: i wrote this way before they named the world of orgin and yes that kind of throwaway paralouge detail is the kind of thing thats going to keep me up at night *sobs*

### The Worlds

_\- -Worldlink map included in end of work- -_

The world of Zenith has been connected to other realms since the beginning of time, as far as Zenikian scholars are able to discern. As such, the study of worlds and the academic classification of worlds is a tradition with a long history.

A **world** is defined in modernity as _: a planet or exceptional timeline that exists outside of Zenith, as well as outside other worlds._ A world contains only itself, and currently, at maximum only one planet. Worlds are also typically not smaller than a planet. These worlds can, but do not have to be, linked directly to Zenith by gatemagick.

Worlds have a very unique property. **Any event that can occur on a World, does occur.** These differing actions split off into what is commonly accepted as other timelines. Worlds split infinitely and spawn endless multi-verses based on the outcomes of any given action. These alternate timelines are rarely magically strong or stable enough to continue existing for very long. Most exist for only a fraction of a moment. Occasionally, however, a timeline spawning from a particular event is impactful enough that the timeline can sustain itself for a long period of time. These spinoff existences are classed as **Outrealms**.

Outrealms vary in terms of strength. The weakest exist on a scale of months. Most exist for years; some exist for several hundred years or so. A special few gain such strength that they can be easily mistaken for one of the Nine Worlds themselves. In fact, in ancient times many of the strongest Outrealms were in fact _accepted_ as members of the Nine Worlds.

### The Nine Worlds

The Nine Worlds took significant time to identify, due to the presence of powerful Outrealms. As such, there are in fact _twelve_ places traditionally referred to as worlds. These are:

  1. World of Zenith
  2. World of Mystery
  3. World of Conquest
  4. World of Binding
  5. World of Awakening
  6. World of Birthright
  7. World of Blazing
  8. World of Radiance
  9. World of Shadows
  10. The Sacred World
  11. World of Holy War
  12. The World of the Dead



Much of Askran astrology-equivalent is based of earlier understanding of worlds. However, there are only nine _true_ Worlds. 

#### The Nine Worlds are as follows:

  1. Zenith
  2. Yggdrasil
  3. Fates
  4. Blazing
  5. Radiance
  6. The Sacred World
  7. Death
  8. Hypothesized: Earth
  9. The Divided/United World



Scholars debate over the inclusion of Fates as its own world, as some scholars believe Fates is simply Yggdrasil, but far, far in Yggdrasil’s past. Still others agree with this point, and then complicate the debate by adding ‘but so what’. Fates has been reclassified several times during its existence, and is currently the center of an unrelated incredibly divisive temporal conservation debate. If someone is a historical gatemage, it is without doubt they will have an opinion on Fates.

Scholars also believe Radiance should be more specifically classed as an Outrealm of Yggdrasil, with the Awakening Outrealm as a further child-realm. At one point, a full global mapping of Yggdrasil’s planet was planned, but this plan was abandoned for unrecorded reasons.

A minor controversy among fringe gatemages is evolving around the connections between The Sacred World and The Divided/United World

The study of world classification is its own field among gatemages. It was more popular in the past than it is now.

_\- -Worldlink map included in end of work- -_


	2. Gatelinks

### Gatelinks

A **gatelink** is defined as any natural or manmade magical link that connects one realm with another. Gatelinks can occur between two Outrealms, between two Worlds, or between and Outrealm and a World. Gatelinks CANNOT occur _within_ a world.

**Gatelink Function**

Gatelinks are an important part of a realm's health. Gatelinks draw power from a stronger realm to a weaker one, slowly equalizing the strength of two realms. Therefore, a place with no gatelinks is far weaker than a place with even _one_ gatelink. Gatelinks to Worlds are the most powerful, while gatelinks to Outrealms vary in strength.

Most gatemages will never work with gatelinks. These links are important, but are also incredibly dangerous. If the difference in power between two places is too great, entire realms can be destroyed.

**What Good Are Gatelinks?**

Gatelinks can destroy realms. However, they can also save realms. The people who live in Outrealms are completely unaware that their world is doomed from the start. As their world dies, so do they. Creating gatelinks to dying Outrealms is the only way to save these places, the people who live there. The strongest worlds don't suffer much from such a small loss of power, and the Outrealms can continue on for a little longer.


	3. The Historical role of Askrans and Emblians

Historically, Askrans and Emblians have placed a moratorium on travel to other Worlds. Any impactful action in a realm has the potential to spawn Outrealms; however, given Zenith’s participation in the multiverse, it is much more likely that Zenikian interference in another world will create a greater number of Outrealms. This is considered extremely cruel, as these Outrealms will eventually fade away.

However, Askran and Emblians still play an important role when it come to gatemagick.

#### International Responsibilities

Most of Askran and Emblian work with gatelinks involved the Outrealms. As they become more aware of the depth of their abilities, they began to monitor and balance the health of the Nine World’s various Outrealms. Weaker Outrealms were given gatelinks to appropriate worlds; Outrealms that had grown strong enough had their gatelinks removed.

In order to protect World stability and to stop further Outrealms from being created, Askrans were also responsible for detecting non-Zenikian gate magic occurring. After detection, Emblians were responsible for preventing these non-Zenikian attempts.

Zenikian ability to protect the Outrealms varied greatly, depending on how many gatemages they had, as well as how well trained they were. In this way, the royalty of Zenith came to be firmly entrenched, and highly important. Askran politics tended to focus more on researching more complex gatemagicks among fewer gatemages, while Emblian culture promoted the kind of large godblooded gatemage families that later on would lead to the absolute mess that is the Emblian royal family tree.

#### Worldmending

One of the most rare and most critical responsibilities of the Zenikians was to choose the future of a World. In rare, rare cases, an event occurred with consequences so different and so powerful, that the course of the World timeline could not proceed properly. Instead of the World timeline continuing on, it would shatter entirely into separate Outrealms. Further complicating the crisis, the resulting Outrealms would draining fatal amounts of power from the base World. This jeopardized **_all existences_** tied to that World and its Outrealms, and was considered the highest priority of dangers by Zenikians.

In these rare cases, Askran and Emblian royalty worked together to choose one of the resulting Outrealms, and permanently tie that Outrealm to the World so that the World would finally be able to proceed along a course. All other Outrealms resulting from that decision were severed, allowing the World to recover from the drain. This entire process was called **worldmending** , and worked a lot like magical buddy-taping.

The World of Fate is currently involved in such a split event. The Outrealms of Birthright and Conquest are currently mutually exclusive of one another but equally powerful to the World, and are destroying the collective Fate. Worldmending is urgently needed; however, relations between Askr and Embla begin falling apart shortly before this fact was discovered. Complicating matters further, a third, equally devastating Outrealm called Revelations was discovered soon following. To this day, Fates has still not been mended, and with the Askran-Emblian war continuing and many critical gatemagicks already lost to history, it is beginning to seem like it never will be.

#### Hel, The World of Death

The world of Hel has many Outrealms populated solely by the dead of the other Worlds. It is known that these Outrealms exist, but Zenikians have never been able to create gatelinks to these places. Their health is maintained by unknown methods. The study of the links to Hel is its own field of gatemagick. It is known that some sort of link must exist, as souls can and do travel to Hel after death. However, the method of this magic is completely unknown. A more normalized gate to Hel was opened by force very recently in Zenikian history, though any facts surrounding the incident are closely guarded by those who know anything.


	4. Breidablik

#### Breidablik

Breidablik was the result of a renaissance era of magical development. Breidablik is an emergency services device, designed to create a hyperpowerful, very short-lasting link to another world immediately. This kind of linking was designed to temporarily protect the weakest of Outrealms while gatelinks were crafted and opened.

The Breidablik, however, was much more powerful than its designers anticipated.

Instead of simply breaking open a temporary gate, the Breidablik actually operated as a kind of swapping mechanism. The initial Breidabliks both brought a person to Zenith, and sent one away, typically whomever happened to be testing it. Once that little error was corrected, Breidabliks could be used to one-way summon a person. This feature proved to be much more useful, and was kept.

Unfortunately, using a living person to serve as a power conduit between two worlds proved to be deleterious to the health of said person. Most of the first summons died as a result of summoning after only a short time. The gatemages of the day were horrified, and Breidablik’s engineers altered its magic in secret so that summoned beings were no longer in danger. To this day, no one is quite sure what they did…or why summoned people seem to be unable to die while under summons…

Regardless, for unknown reasons only one final Breidablik was ever created. Originally, Summoners were able to pinpoint not only where and when they were summoning from, but who they were summoning. As an emergency tool, Breidablik was also designed so that anyone, regardless of bloodline, could use it.

Over time, Breidablik’s role and more specific functions have been forgotten. Eventually, it was sealed away in Vaskrheim. 


	5. Worldlink Maps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the cyclical nature of Zenith is another really long post i have to add on here one day ah haha


End file.
